Chapter 1 Student Questions

Did having bacteria and air-borne contamination with cultures of viruses skew results? Were they trying to correlate a grown virus with a certain illness, and did contamination ever throw off their results?

The EM microscope has been a valuable tool for the identification and measuring of viruses. During the time it took for the EM to become more commonplace in the usage of measuring viruses, what other methods were used and how were the sizes of the viruses determined? What are the advantages of the EM compared to the other methods that were used? What were the patterns that were found?

Why did virologists refer to a virus as a poisonous liquid in the nineteenth century?

Why can’t hepatitis c be grown in the lab via conventional methods?

What is a nanopore sequencer?

The Greek Goddess Hygeia was worshiped at the Parthenon 3500 year ago for her exemplary what?

What causes infantile paralysis, also known as polio?

Why did virologists refer to a virus as a poisonous liquid in the nineteenth century?

What is Reverse Genetics and how does it contribute to virology?

Did having bacteria and air-borne contamination with cultures of viruses skew results? Were they trying to correlate a grown virus with a certain illness, and did contamination ever throw off their results?

The book mentioned that antibiotics caused a great advance in the propagation of viruses because the antibiotics inhibited airborne contaminants, but it also mentioned that cells are now cultured without antibiotics. Why would pharmaceutical groups stop using antibiotics in their cultures if they have worked so well to inhibit contaminants in the past?

What are the studies of phylodynamics and phylogeography?

What is the term for a commercial treatment of goods, still used today, soon discovered after Louis Pasteur documented the fermentation process of yeasts? (Hint: Fine Wine)

How was the first virus, tobacco mosaic, discovered and what does it infect?

How do scientists identify viruses?

Does the recent addition of antibiotics (1940s/50s) to culture mediums which inhibit contamination in large-scale vaccine production, affect the cell cultures negatively?

How did the understanding of a virus’ replication cycle lead to the creation of viral controls?

Have there been any statistical studies on the rate at which antigenic drift occurs in influenza viruses? If so what was concluded?

The EM microscope has been a valuable tool for the identification and measuring of viruses. During the time it took for the EM to become more commonplace in the usage of measuring viruses, what other methods were used and how were the sizes of the viruses determined? What are the advantages of the EM compared to the other methods that were used? What were the patterns that were found?

Life and Biology

Nicknamed "LaB", Life and Biology is a project initiated by Dr. Joel Graff. Here I share biology content for both my students at Montana Tech and anyone else that is curious about the topic. Feel free to snoop around the site and offer me any feedback you may have using the "Contact" page.